Two Worlds
by stevenlu
Summary: The real world and the online world. Can love truly exist between the two? Kurama x Botan
1. The First Chapter Is This One

**Two Worlds  
By Fruit is NOT a Dessert**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.**

**Chapter One  
**

Kurama leaned back in his chair, scrolling through a Wikipedia page for his chemistry project.

"_Stoichiometry rests upon the law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions and the law of multiple proportions. In general, chemical reactions will combine in definite ratios of chemicals. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of each element must be the same throughout the overall reaction. For example, the amount of element X on the reactant side must equal the amount of element X on the product side…"_

He sighed. Kurama generally enjoyed chemistry—being a skilled florist, he excelled at the subject. Chemical reactions were easy, as were balancing equations, stabilizing ions, and labs. Despite this, his current chemistry project was killing him.

"Stoichiometry…what a hassle."

Kurama recalled the previous day's events. His chemistry teacher had assigned a partner project, which caused the girls of the class to flock to his desk. Of course, nearly every girl wanted to be Kurama's partner. Fearful of inducing jealousy for the one he was paired with, he asked the teacher if he could work alone, but…

She had stuck him with another boy. This boy sat in the corner of the classroom, often dressed entirely in black. Oddly enough, Kurama could not recall the name of his partner. Did it begin with an 'I' or an 'H'? No matter.

"Oh well. I may as well complete this project by…what's this?" A small window popped up on Kurama's computer monitor. Kurama sighed. It was a message screen from his instant messenger program.

**CutieGirl314**: hi shuichi

Kurama didn't recognize either of the names. He did not have a "CutieGirl314" in his buddy list, nor did he immediately realize that he himself was "shuichi." Shuichi Minamino was Kurama's human name. After a couple hundred years of living as the infamous demon fox thief, Kurama, in the Demon Realm, the sixteen years he had spent as Shuichi were not enough for him to welcome his new name.

Not that it mattered—in a few years, he would have enough of his demonic energy recovered to return to his professional business of thieving rare artifacts and spiritual belongings.

Kurama gazed at the screen, amused. Nearly every new girl who IMed him for the first time would begin with repeatedly praising his looks, intelligence, athletic ability, and popularity. Instead, this "CutieGirl314" had opted for a simple salutation. He decided to allow her the privilege of a typed response.

**ShuichiM:** Hello, to whom am I speaking to?

**CutieGirl314:** nobody, i guess…

The response was instantaneous. A small bit of pity gripped Kurama. He had always had a soft spot for uncertain girls.

**ShuichiM:** Well, I'm Shuichi. How do you do, Mystery Lady?

Kurama waited exactly two minutes for a response. He saw the small subtext "**CutieGirl314 is typing…**" which soon became "**CutieGirl314 has entered text**." Kurama minimized the window and continued with his research.

Five minutes later, the response had not come.

He shrugged, and went into the kitchen to get a soda. When he got back to the computer, the girl still hadn't responded. However, the "**CutieGirl314 has entered text**." subtext was still on the IM window. Kurama X'd the little conversation box.

Sure, Kurama was curious but, moreover, he had the report to finish.

-

The following morning, Kurama awoke to the mechanical beeping of his alarm clock—it read 5:30. His head launched upward and made contact with the wooden bottom of the upper bunk bed. The occupant of the upper bed stirred.

"Hey, you woke me up, Shuichi!" came a springy voice.

A young boy's face popped out, hanging upside down. He had straight crimson hair and emerald eyes and bore a cute, childish face. He was Shora Minamino.

"Ah…I'm sorry, little brother."

"Don't worry," said Shora with a grin. "I was gonna wake you up first by jumping on your stomach, but I guess you avoided it! There's my big brother for ya."

Kurama laughed off his apprehension of being jumped upon. "Too bad, little brother. If you'll excuse me, I must attend school today. Tiroya High School does not regard late arrivals with cheers."

As Kurama walked out the door, Shora threw a pair of dirty white socks at him. Kurama heard his brother's insane giggling as he closed the door. He made himself a quick breakfast, put on his shined leather shoes, and departed for school.

The sun was not up yet, but Tokyo was busy as ever. Businessmen, shopkeepers, workers, and students were already up and about. Kurama took in the perfumed scent outside of the apartment building and set off. As he strolled, he heard a chorus of low giggles from behind.

_My Youko sense is tingling…_ Kurama chanced a backwards glance. It was a ring of girls from the same school, marked by their collared white shirts and maroon skirts. At the head of the group was a girl Kurama recognized as the president of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club. Time to disappear.

Kurama swung to the left casually, entering a ramen shop. "One ramen, Mr. Yukimura!" he said aloud while giving the man a hand signal. Mr. Yukimura, the owner of the shop, recognized it as Kurama's standard escape sign.

"Very well, Shuichi. One ramen coming up," he said with a wink.

Kurama nodded his appreciation and immediately exited the ramen shop through the back door. Through the door, he heard one of the girls ask Mr. Yukimura where Shuichi had gone. Mr. Yukimura told her that he was in the restroom and didn't feel well.

Kurama made it to Tiroya High School five minutes before the bell by cutting through a few lawns and eventually merging back onto the main road. The day went uneventfully. Chemistry was the last class of the day and Kurama made his way to the lab room through Tiroya's complex series of hallways. Heavy footfalls approached him from behind.

"Hey you, Minamino! That's you, right? Minamino!" Kurama turned to see a tall boy staring down at him. The boy wore the school uniform with an unregulated blue jacket. His head was shaved and he wore a red headband on his head.

"Hi. Who are you?"

"Me? You don't know who I am? And here I was thinking you was all smart and stuff! Minamino, you're pathetic, not knowing who I am. Everybody knows me, the demon of Tiroya!"

"_You_ are a demon? I think not. What is your name?"

The boy pointed his thumb to himself arrogantly. "_I'm_ Hachimaki, a third year. Freshman like you has no right to ask me my name though. I'm givin' it to you for free mainly because I feel sorry for you, scum."

"Well, Hachimaki, I'm pleased to meet you. Shuichi Minamino, first year." Kurama held out his hand for a hand shake. "I hope we get along well."

Hachimaki spat on Kurama's palm. More people were gathering around the two.

Kurama grimaced, not certain how to feel. Many boys were jealous of him for his natural charm and looks, but few had ever shown contempt for him. Because Kurama never showed any signs of liking the girls that tailed him, they were never angry.

"Listen, pal," snapped Hachimaki. He grabbed Kurama's collar and lifted him off the ground. "Don't go playin' all your courtesy games with me. You're nothing but a pretty boy. Junk, that's what you are. Nothing but pretty boy junk. Worthless junk. So don't go acting like you're better than the rest of us here, you got that? That's because you ain't better than us. All you've got is that pretty little face of yours. It's funny huh? How does someone like you get all the girls, you red-haired freak?"

_So it _is_ about girls,_ thought Kurama.

"We don't think much of you, Minamino. We'll make sure you leave your goody-good attitude for good, you piece of junk. You go home and cry to that crippled mother of yours that she wasn't supposed to ever give birth to you. That you're just a fluke. Yeah, you don't deserve to live, lousy piece of junk. Your mother, that piece of junk, ought to…"

Kurama loosened himself from the bully's grip and delivered a sideways kick to his skull. Hachimaki's heavy frame was sent sprawling into the crowd. Kurama walked over, hands in pockets. "I'm sorry, but if you insist on insulting my family, I must tell you to stop," he chided.

Hachimaki sprang up, rubbing the side of his head.

"Don't worry," said Kurama. "My shoes are clean."

"Why you—I'll kill you, junk face!" roared Hachimaki as he reeled his fist back for a punch. Kurama, keen not to cause any more violence, sidestepped out of danger. After a few futile punches, Hachimaki stopped. He was panting hard. Desperate, he charged head-on into Kurama, who decided to end the struggle. Kurama caught his opponent's fist and crushed it until a small _snap!_ was heard.

Hachimaki's face twisted in agony. "Let go let go let go let go let go let the hell go of me, you junk-headed freak!" A few people from the crowd cheered. Hachimaki apparently wasn't a popular figure at school.

Kurama released his fist. Hachimaki, who had been too anxious to pull away from Kurama's grasp, fell away. He tumbled on the ground for a few times before slamming into a locker.

Kurama glared at him mercilessly. "The next time you attempt to pick a fight with a stranger, please mind your manners."

Gentleman that he was, Kurama waited for a nurse to arrive and drag a defeated Hachimaki to the nurse's office.

He walked into the classroom, ignoring the dispersing crowd's murmuring. Kurama sat in his regular seat and looked over at the corner where his partner sat—he wasn't there. The boy wearing black was nowhere to be found in the room.

The period was allotted for work on the stoichiometry project, so Kurama decided to turn in his project to the teacher immediately, claiming that he and his partner had worked very diligently the previous night. The teacher scratched her head, wondering how anybody could finish a two-week project in one night. Kurama tried getting his partner's name from the teacher without giving away that he worked on it alone. It was to no avail.

He spent the remainder of the period immersed in a mecha manga he had picked up, while the other students began their reports. The end-of-the-day bell rang, excusing the class.

Kurama got home and immediately turned on the computer. The Internet was a new interest—almost an addiction—to him. He was fascinated about all the stuff that could be commuted and how quickly digital information could be passed. It was a rather exciting cyber world, with hackers, viruses, and programmers.

He was posting on a forum about Trojan horse viruses. It was a fascinating subject, how well they worked and how the process was becoming more and more advanced. Kurama noted the efficiency of concealment to spy on another person's computer.

A small rectangle popped up in the bottom-right corner of his monitor.

**CutieGirl314 has signed on.**

Intrigued, Kurama decided to do a bit of simple investigating. First, he checked the public profile of this mystery person.

**This person does not have a profile.**

_Dang it!_ he thought. This made him ever more curious about the her identity. A new addition to the instant messaging program he used was the profile page, a web page which recorded the information of the user. Maybe there was more information there. The page loaded, but there was little disclosed information. No e-mail address, no location, no age, not even a gender. Kurama shuddered.

But one thing that was revealed was the popularity factor. It was a number that was based off of the number of friends who had specified user on their friends list, as well as the number of friends who had those friends on their friends lists.

**Popularity factor: 5.**

Five. A one-digit number. That meant that either this "CutieGirl314" was very unpopular or was using an alias username (Kurama's popularity factor had reached the millions). Kurama decided the latter was more probable.

**CutieGirl314:** hi shuichi

Surprising, really. She had messaged him again. Kurama's pulse sped slightly. He noticed that the text was pink with a green background. The color scheme reminded him of watermelons.

Kurama planned his response carefully. He would have to respond fast enough to let her know that he was paying attention, but not to seem too rushed. Also, he would have to act interested in her if he was to know her identity. At the very least, Kurama needed a name.

**ShuichiM:** Hello, Mystery Lady. You sort of left me hanging there yesterday.

**CutieGirl314: **oh sorry about that…my mom was calling

Kurama sighed with relief. _So she wasn't ignoring me._

**CutieGirl314:** so im guessing you want to know who i am by now?

**ShuichiM**: Haha, a clue would be nice.

**CuteGirl314:** well……i think ur really cute

_Big surprise,_ Kurama mused. To his surprise, he saw that his fingers had automatically typed out his thoughts. He looked at the screen, a bit dumbfounded.

**ShuichiM:** Big surprise.

**CutieGirl314:** lol arent you modest?

**CutieGirl314:** actually ur pretty brave too

**CutieGirl314:** i saw how you handled that hachimaki

**ShuichiM:** Oh…well, his headband was probably tied too tight. Loss of blood pressure in the brain…not good. I feel sorry for him now, handicapped so severely.

_(Author's Note: A hachimaki is a Japanese headband, worn often by the kamikaze pilots during the second World War. I took the name form PlanetES. Really good anime.)_

Kurama held his breath, hoping she would find the comment funny.

**CutieGirl314:** lol

Kurama smiled.

**ShuichiM:** So, do you have any more surprising clues?

**CutieGirl314:** lol

**CutieGirl314:** i go to tiroya high school

**ShuichiM:** No way! Anything else?

By now, Kurama's eyes were already glued to his computer screen. He leaned forward expectantly.

What he found was disheartening.

Nothing.

Not even a "**CutieGirl314 has entered text.**"

Slightly disappointed, Kurama logged off his messenger program and went back to exploring the world of the Trojan horse virus. Now if only he could build himself a horse to learn about the Mystery Lady.

_(Author's Note: I really couldn't think of a good chapter name. The original one, "CutieGirl314" sounded too generic. I'm open to suggestions for a good chapter name.)_


	2. This Chapter Takes Place After The First

**Two Worlds****  
By Fruit is NOT a Dessert**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.**

**Chapter Two**

Kurama awoke with a startle because of his dream and then he hit his head on the very low bottom of the top bunk which caused Shora to murmur something in his sleep. He checked the clock besides his own bunk and saw that it was only 4:30 and that his alarm would ring in an hour so he turned it off because he had no plans on going back to bed. Quietly, he dressed into his regular school uniform—a regular uniform with a maroon-colored theme—he then opened the door oh-so-quietly and then shut it oh-so-ever-more-quietly. He walked past the other bedroom, which belonged to his mother, and saw that the door was open which meant that his mother, Shiori, was already awake. He walked over to the living room and turned on the computer, which made small whirling sounds as it started up that disturbed the quietness of the room, but stopped when the computer was done turning on. Kurama was hungry.

"Good morning, Mom," said Kurama as he walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Shuichi." Kurama's human mother sat at the dining table with a cup of jasmine tea and a magazine. A rather pretty woman with flowing dark hair and the compassionate eyes of a mother, Shiori Minamino was the most important person in the world to Kurama. The fox demon was quite attached to his human mother—something he predicted would haunt him later. Nevertheless, Kurama found it difficult not to appreciate Shiori's maternal love.

Kurama fixed himself a serving of miso soup from the steaming bowl Shiori had already prepared. It smelled delicious. He sat at the table across from Shiori.

"You're up early today, Shuichi. Did you have a nightmare?"

"It was just a dream. I was on the computer and then the monitor became dark. I was dragged into the computer and was chasing a floating name. I tried running toward it, but it was always the same distance away from me," Kurama explained truthfully.

"And what was that name?"

Kurama felt a bead of sweat trickle by his ear. His mom continued speaking as he opened his mouth.

"Well, it's your private life, Shuichi. I won't interfere with it. However…if anything is wrong, I'm always here to discuss things with you." She paused. "It isn't…_a girl_, is it, Shuichi?"

Two beads of sweat. "Yes—er, well I'm not too sure right now." And he really didn't know—it was proven that most people on the Internet were not who they said they were. A man pretending to be a girl wasn't unheard of.

Silence.

"Oh, I'm quite certain that Mystery Lady is a girl," Kurama said hastily.

"Okay," said Shiori. "I see you're done with the soup. Go ahead and use the computer, Shuichi. I know you want to. You keep looking at it when you're speaking."

"Thanks." Kurama gave his mom a quick hug and hurried off to the living room. Shiori picked up reading her magazine. The aroma of the tea carried over to the living room.

As Kurama took his seat, his hands were already dancing over the keyboard. He entered in his private password and his desktop loaded: a wallpaper, shortcuts, and a toolbar. His wallpaper was of an elaborately drawn fox from the video game Okami; vivid orange flames covered the background. There were many shortcuts on his desktop—among them were many games, study applications, an internet browser, media software, and his instant messenger program.

He double-clicked the messenger program, which immediately prompted him for his password. All fifteen characters in his password were typed in under a second.

**ShuichiM is logging in…  
Verifying password…  
Logged in.**

A larger window appeared, containing Kurama's friends list. In total, there were 100 user names on the list, mainly close friends and gaming acquaintances. Many more people had contacted him before but they were either on his ignore list or he had never bothered adding them. Kurama's friends list was divided into three sections: School Friends, Game Friends, and Family.

At the moment, very few people were logged on. The majority of them were away from their computers. Kurama clicked a little eye symbol at the top of the list—Shuichi Minamino was now "invisible." The only way to locate an "invisible" username was to search for their profile manually. However, Kurama had a discreet countermeasure against that. He had customized his public profile to write "**This person does not have a profile.**" This way, only people who were in urgent need to speak with him would be messaging him. In addition, there was always the added benefit of seeing other people's online statuses without their knowing.

Youko Kurama, online stalker extraordinaire.

The time read 5:00 on the computer screen. _Excellent, enough time for some quality Web time. But what to do? I really should be working on sharpening my thieving abilities for the future…if only the Internet could connect to the Demon Realm._ Kurama decided to play a computer game to pass the time. Every minute or so, he would press Alt and Tab simultaneously to minimize his game and check his friends list. To his dismay, Mystery Lady never signed on that morning. He even checked her profile to ensure she wasn't invisible.

He had played for an hour when a small chirp interrupted his game. A chat window popped up. It was covered with large, bold red text on a black background.

**XxDemonHachixX:** HEY SUICHI

**ShuichiM:** Hello. Who is this?

**XxDemonHachixX:** R U STUPID??!

**ShuichiM:** You are Hachimaki, the third year. Am I wrong?

**XxDemonHachixX:** DARN STRAIGHT I AM, JINKFACE

**XxDemonHachixX:** LISSEN U Y R U INVSBLE RITE NOW?!??! SCARED???!

**ShuichiM:** I'm terribly sorry, but I'm playing a game right now. That's why I am invisible.

**XxDemonHachixX:** U SCaRED O FME!!!!!!

**XxDemonHachixX:** SCAREDY FREHSMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**ShuichiM:** What I'm truly afraid of is your spelling.

Kurama pressed the block button. "XxDemonHachixX" wouldn't bother him anymore. However, something that was bothering Kurama was how Hachimaki had been able to message him. Sure, many people knew his user name—however, he was still invisible. Judging by Hachimaki's spelling, Kurama found it difficult to believe that he knew how to identify user names in the invisible status.

_Somebody probably told him._

It was now time to leave for school. Kurama shut down his computer, slung on his backpack, and headed for the door. "Bye, Mom. I'm leaving now," he called as he left.

"Have a good day."

Kurama saw the normal gang of girls outside, members of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club. They were spread out along the street, hiding behind bushes. It was possibly a plan to trap him from all sides and force him to walk to school with them. Seeing this, the redhead immediately turned back and broke into a dash. He headed behind the apartment complex he, Shora, and Shiori were living in. It was a private, secluded place with beautiful trees and plants. And most of all…it was private There were no people around.

Kurama used his growing athletic ability to jump onto the rooftop. It was ten stories high but with each day, Kurama felt his demon abilities recovering. The jump was nothing—although Kurama did have trouble suppressing his abilities during P.E.

He continued by making high leaps from rooftop to rooftop. He had already memorized the quickest rooftop route without being spotted, which was actually a complex pattern of avoiding household residences and heavy populated places, like parks and the nearby shopping center.

He arrived at school in time. Another girl attack avoided.

History was his first class of the day. It was also when the daily announcements aired on the intercom. The school speakers had been sketchy for the past few weeks, but the school had fixed it the previous day. The students could now distinguish the gender of the speaker. An upbeat, bright female voice was doing the announcements.

_Beep!_

_Good morning, Tiroya High School. This is **Botan** with your morning announcements! I'm pleased to say that we have some exciting news: for the fifth year in a row, Tiroya is now a country-distinguished school! Congratulations and good work, students! And to the staff, thank you for your hard work. (Now we'll have the upper hand for college applications than the other schools. Haha!)_

_Also, prepare yourselves for our school's next big event…a dance! The Spring Fling dance is taking place next week! It's sure to be a hit (because I'm working hard on it myself) so make sure you don't miss out! Ask your dates now! Tickets will be sold at the ticket booth during lunch. Thank you!_

_Moving on, we…_

Kurama was beyond listening. A dance. Another dance. Dances were one social event that Kurama absolutely dreaded. Well, it wasn't actually the dance that he dreaded—it was the days leading up to the dance that were bothersome. In middle school, Kurama was always be bombarded with invitations to accompany girls to dances. Oftentimes a simple rejection worked. Sometimes it didn't.

And why were girls asking him to dances? Wasn't the boy supposed to ask the girl? Kurama still didn't fullly understand the thoughts of humans. Couldn't they see that he wasn't playing hard-to-get, but just didn't want to be with anybody?

_Another dance…Ugh. No matter. It's only a few years before my demon powers will return to me. I cannot allow myself to get attached to any human before that._

The class ended with a lecture on the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853. The bell rang. Kurama departed for his second class, calculus. Halfway between the two classrooms, he had already been asked by three people. Luckily, they had not caused much of a commotion when he calmly rejected them. However, Kurama groaned at the sight of the president of the Shuichi Minamino Fan Club, who led several girls behind her. He hurried around the bend in the hallway to avoid detection…

"Watch out!" screamed a girl. In his haste, Kurama had bumped into her as he turned. He looked down to see a blue-haired, blue-eyed girl whom he immediately recognized as the girl from the announcements: Botan, a first year student. He had spoken with her before during the school board elections.

Kurama helped her pick up the books she had dropped. He was quite surprised to see a Calculus book in the mess. Not many first years took Calculus.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, offering her a hand. Botan took it, smiling. Her skin was smooth and soft to the touch—Kurama recognized the smell of the lotion. It was the kind his mother used.

"Thanks!" said Botan, giving Kurama an expected hug.

He cringed inwardly. _Idiot! It's the get-close-and-hug-and-then-get-a-good-grip-in-order-to-ask-out-to-the-dance-and-not-let-him-leave-your-grip strategy!_ Kurama acted the gentleman and, instead of pulling out of the embrace, laughed aloud.

"It was the least I could do, seeing as how it was my fault you fell. My apologies for that."

Botan removed her arms from around Kurama, still smiling cheerfully. "Well, thanks again!" She whirled about and scurried off to her next class without hesitation.

_She didn't ask me to the dance? Even after a hug—what's this? Perhaps she already has a boyfriend or feels that I wouldn't go if she asked. Yes, that must be it. She was too timid to ask me out. Or maybe…no, she couldn't have not wanted to ask. Every other girls does._

Kurama slapped himself mentally.

_Fool! What business do you have regarding this Botan's feelings? She's a human, and humans are trouble._

Luckily, he had forgotten entirely about his encounter with Botan by the end of the day. After all, a barrage of thirty-seven invitations to attend the Spring Fling was enough to irk even the most patient of demon foxes. The boy who always wore black was still absent from chemistry class.

_(Author's Note: To those who reviewed, thank you. I don't mind any constructive criticism, so feel free to blast away this time. I'll try getting the third chapter done before three weeks...before second semester begins. However, I have finals and my certificate of merit exam to worry about right now. Sorry, but the next update may come later. I'm trying not to leave this fic hanging like I did last year. 2007, whee!)_


End file.
